Russia bombards Kyiv with missiles hours after agreeing to resume talks with Ukraine
Seven Lights
Russia has carried out a massive “demonstrative” attack on Ukraine, bombarding Kyiv with ballistic missiles just hours after President Vladimir Putin said he had agreed to resume trilateral negotiations following talks with the US envoy Steve Witkoff, the Guardian reported. Overnight, Moscow pounded the Ukrainian capital, killing at least two people and wounding 22, including four children, according to the Guardian. Targets included the southern bridge over the Dnipro River, civilian houses, energy infrastructure, an ambulance station, office buildings and a monastery, the outlet said. Twelve regions across the country were bombed, including the southern city of Odesa, where the port was badly hit, the Guardian reported.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said on Thursday that numerous sites across the city had been hit and damaged, and that the strikes showed Russia was not serious about peace. “Almost immediately after another round of talks, Russia launched a pointed attack. This means there has been no real change in its attitude toward everything that is happening,” he said, as quoted by the Guardian. In a social media post after the strikes in the early hours of Thursday, he wrote: “Three waves of ballistic missiles have been launched at Kyiv by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening. They used 21 missiles.” Zelenskyy called for stronger air defences, Patriot interceptors and more sanctions against Moscow, according to the Guardian.
The attack came shortly after the Kremlin foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday that Putin had agreed “in principle” to resume three-way negotiations involving Russia, the US and Ukraine after 10 November, a week after the US midterm elections, the Guardian reported. During the negotiations in St Petersburg on Wednesday, Witkoff told Putin: “You talk so much about my president, President Trump, being a humanitarian. You are a humanitarian also, sir, and I salute that,” according to the Guardian. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, said “appeasement, servility and flattery” would not stop Russian aggression, the outlet reported.
The BBC reported that missiles hit the capital hours after Russia said it was “ready in principle” to resume peace talks, following a US call to restart them, and that several houses were hit on Wednesday night, injuring six people, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko. The attack came amid a diplomatic push led by US President Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner; Witkoff met Putin in St Petersburg on Wednesday, a day after meeting Zelensky and the leaders of Norway and Finland in Oslo, the BBC said. Three-way talks were paused in February, after which Russia stepped up attacks as Ukraine ran out of Western-supplied interceptors to defend against missiles, the BBC reported.
Speaking on Wednesday, Trump said: “The other day I was talking to Vladimir Putin about settling his war with Ukraine, which I think we’re getting closer to, by the way, maybe now the closest we’ve been,” according to the BBC. Ushakov suggested a new round of talks could be held around 10 November in Abu Dhabi, and said the discussions must focus on “building a security system for Russia and Ukraine after the end of the conflict,” the BBC reported. Ushakov also said Putin told Witkoff that Russian troops were advancing everywhere across the front line and had a “strategic initiative”; Ukraine and its European allies have disputed that claim, pointing to a virtual stalemate on the front, the BBC said.
The Guardian reported that officials in Kyiv believe Russia’s real intention is to destroy Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, leaving millions in the dark and cold before winter. According to the Guardian, the US has resumed intelligence warnings of Russian missile attacks, but the White House has so far not reversed the slowdown of Starshield, the military version of Elon Musk’s Starlink internet satellite system, leaving Ukraine unable to intercept some enemy drones.